Hey everyone,

I've not posted on here before, but was wondering if anyone else has had a bit of stress with Edexcel since results day?! (AS for me) I got 4 marks short of an A, but was really hoping for a good A, which is what all of my teachers had predicted.

Firstly, Edexcel have lost my listening paper, for module 3, and I'm pretty sure that was my best paper! I even knew the Q3 song really well as I had just been in a production of Guys and Dolls! How on earth do they manage to lose exam papers!

The Director of Music at my school has been on the phone with the assessment leader for ages, but it doesn't seem like they're doing much to help, or that the lost papers will ever be found! Edexcel said that they were going to look for the missing papers, and leave the mark open for a month, but if they don't find them then they have just guessed the score for my listening paper based on an aggregate mark - basically they've just made it up!

Whilst my teacher was on the phone to them, he managed to get a slight breakdown of some of our marks but the guy refused to discuss individual students' marks. For composition/4 part/2part, my mark seemed a little high as I'm not the greatest composer! However, the marks given by my teacher for the performance module (25/25 and 25/25) were marked down a lot by the exam board. I got Distinction for my Grade 8 flute exam and we thought my recorded solos etc were fine, but they've been marked down to 18/25 for recorded solo and 22/25 for performing during the course.

Has anyone else had similar problems? I think I'm going to get a remark of my performance module, and go from there! My music teacher is really frustrated with Edexcel, and so am I!

Oh, no! That's terrible! I hope it gets sorted too. I was mark off an A, and I think there was something wrong with my marks. Well not wrong but a bit skewed! My composition module was really low 57/90, yet I thought that my composition was half decent, but with my listening paper I got 101/120, yet I know I made loads of mistakes on it. I am going to ask whether I should have a remark of unit 2. Good luck

Good luck to you too! I think I should have something remarked, though it's a bit hard to get them to remark my listening when they've lost it! Yep, skewed seems like a good description! Oo one mark off?! I'm sure you'll be able to make it up next year, whatever happens with the remark

Edexcel have also lost my Unit 6 Analysis paper and someone else's listening paper so I haven't had mark for that unit yet....

I'm not too worried as all my other marks are high so I should still come out with an A

When did you know they had lost your paper? It's ridiculous, in some cases a "guessed" mark could end up with a grade higher than you would have got, but in others could have been much lower.

I know my listening paper was appalling - I know I got instruments wrong, and didn't know the Guys and Dolls thing, and the last question I am not so good on...but to only drop 19 UMS marks overall, is just mad.

I did enquire to a friend, and she said it wasn't worth a remark as it could go down

I don't think they can put them down if you get a remark. It would be grossly unfair if they could.

I'm afraid this has been going on for at least a year or more now. As it happened to me last year when I did Music A level, as a mature student. I was close to an A too. It was the performance/composition/harmony mark that let me down. My teacher told me I was predicted a lot higher, but the examiners really marked everyone down for some reason. But we never got our rightly due final grade in the end.

It's a disgrace...

They can mark it any way they wish. It can go down, stay the same or go up.



Well, my teacher had never told me my composition was bad, and some submitted just melodies for single lined instruments, I did flute and piano. I had 3 minutes worth, and I thought it was half decent.
Had been getting Bs and things for harmony mark before. I don't know.

Just in case anyone has forgotten, grade B is very good - more than some people will ever get.
Edexcel are rubbish yes, but as has been pointed out, sometimes the marks are way too high and sometimes they are way too low. I'm just hoping that when I take mine they will balance out! If you decide to get remarks, the grade can go down BUT you can always refuse the new grade - £52 is all you lose, not your grade. As for losing papers, they tend to just award the average mark for that year. I'm pretty certain that if you make enough of a fuss, they will award you your predicted grade instead (it happened at GCSE before). I sort of had the problem that my AS MusTech work was given a very low A last year, but resubmitting the same cw module produced double the raw marks this year with no alterations. The MusTech marking has a better reputation the the Music. Not a good sign.

I don't wanna do AS Music any more!!!

I know a B is very good, not saying it isn't, but for me I think I am capable of an A

£52 is a lot when you have to pay for it yourself. I'll see what my teacher thinks, she might have the breakdown even more

Edexcel does seem rather wacky! I got a C overall for AS - B for composition (64/90), A for performance (88/90 - *faints* I wasn't expecting that one!).The listening test was the bit that went wrong... 57/120, which equates to an E...oops. Not quite sure what happened there! It wasn't the best day ever, and I know I made plenty of stupid mistakes in the exam (Beethoven composed Guys and Dolls, just for your information...! ) but I don't think I did quite that badly in all the practice ones!

Does anyone else find it weird how you don't seem to get credit for writing things that are correct but in too much detail for the mark scheme? One of the sample markschemes on their site answered the essay question in 1 paragraph, yet I can write 1-2 sides and get about 4 marks for it because I've gone into too much detail...

EDIT: forgot the other thing about the anthology paper - forget which section it was, but there was a word in the first part which our teacher later said she didn't know. She asked 3 other A-level music teachers (or 4, can't remember now!) and they'd never heard of it either. And guess what, it wasn't in any music dictionaries she could find either! Now call me stupid, but last time I checked we were studying for AS levels, not PhD's....

I am now fuming, as that now makes sense why our class got all the same grade for the section I am complaining about. Never thought anything about it at the time .. We did get a remark, but marks came back the same, so I reken they just didn't admit to losing paper. This really is terrible for all those who are not getting their deserved grades. I mean, I agree that B is a good grade, a very good grade, so is any pass at A level. But for those of you who think you are capable of a high grade, then it's not fair is it! I only hope that it doesn't affect any of you with your chances of Uni places etc.

Haha, I said that Vaughan Williams composed Guys and Dolls, and it would have been played at a small social event!

Was it bavox or something? If so, I think that means backing vocals, but I hadn't a clue either



That's really quite strange. I don't know what any of the other people in my group got, but I know one's composition was 1.5 minutes, but 3 minutes including repeats, so it'll be really interesting to see what she got for composition.

No, I think it was something in the sacred vocal section, but I can't remember! I'll have to have a look if they publish it as a practice paper on the website or something!

Does anyone know if there is a table showing the percentages of students for each grade/mark in the different modules? The people I've spoken to so far seem to have done worse than expected in the unit 3 module, it would be interesting to see how the rest of the country performed! I've read through the examiners report, but I can't find any tables, just endless references to averages which are in different reports! Grr....

I did better in the unit 3 module. I am sure the examiner must have been drunk or something. I'd love to get my papers back and see what they marked right. I'll have a look for you.

What! According to this table, you needed 69/105 (raw mark) for an A (unit 3) pg 38 specification

Edit 2- I know I did most of the wrong answers that they cite in the listening, I didn't get 'cello' or 'trombone' and definitely not much of c right.

Something really isn't right!

Yep, I find most of the marking weird! But I'm glad I now know that Beethoven composed Guys and Dolls I didn't do that option, I did the fill in the notes/rhythm option, but as I knew the song it was a bit easier for me!

If you go to this link, and then to page 37 you'll find the Edexcel AS results summary (but it doesn't break the exam down into component papers.)

http://www.edexcel.org.uk/VirtualContent/5...ed_Subjects.pdf

Beware, the stats are cumulative.

Basically 7011 people sat the music AS level.

A = 1713 (24.43%)
B = 1178 (16.78%)
C = 1125 (16.05%)
D = 1016 (14.49%)
E = 877 (12.51%)
and 1102 (15.72%) failed

Last year our son did music GCSE with Edexcel. He got a C with no marks for Performance as they said the papers had not been entered. The school complained and got a fax the same day confirming the predicted marks and awarding an A. He did his AS level this year with OCR and didn't have any problems.

So most people got As? Or am I reading this wrongly?

More people got As than any other individual grade, but only 1713 got As and 5298 didn't (because they got Bs or Cs, Ds, Es or failed) so I suppose it's more accurate to say most people didn't get an A.

That's what I meant, thanks!

Wasn't it out of 120? *confused* I give up with Edexcel's marking it's too crazy for even me to understand!



Ooooo thanks! I'll take a look at the link. Shame it doesn't do component papers - I might email them and see what they say..probably won't amount to much but it would be interesting to see.
What happened to your son sounds like typical Edexcel sadly... stupid people!

EDIT: the link seems to have stopped working *goes hunting*
They have the mark schemes up but guess what...I can't access them because I'm not an authorised 'Edexcel Online' member...stupid stupid people! Why the ###### do they put mark schemes up and then not let the students view them? This is ridiculous!! *screams at Edexcel website*

EDIT 2: ooo, found an interesting table. Mark for a B is 210. I got 209. What a ******* surprise. That's so typical!

Ditto for me. Unlike the AB they like giving results ending in 9!

The raw mark was out of 105 but the UMS scaled mark was out of 120. Apparently.

Last time I tried to access the Edexcel reports, it kept sending me to Urdu ones

Fantastic!
They ought to get their site sorted out at the same time then!

I went to the Urdu ones, but they sent me to Urdu ones too

OK. Go to this link

http://www.edexcel.org.uk/sfc/feschools/stats/gce/

and take the second NEW entry, "June 2006 (Provisional) GCE Advanced Subsidiary (Double Awards) in Applied Subjects" and then go to page 37.

barry

(BTW, Nicki - I thought that's what you meant but I didn't want to say 'yes' and have the ABRSP come down on me like the proverbial ton of building blocks.)

Erm..that only comes up as 5 pages on my computer (and music isn't one of them!)
Thank you for trying, but don't worry about it I'm sure one of our teachers will have it for when we go back (they've hopefully managed to hack the mark schemes too!)

Well I don't know how I got 120 when I didn't know that that song was from Guys and Dolls and guessed half the question!
Edexcel are silly.

Here we go!

As a piano teacher, I am extremely ignorant with regard to what's required for music A Level, and from what I can gather, all credit is due to all those who teach it or do it - in an era in which so much is spoon-fed, this really seems to require a lot of thought!

I'm afraid I can't give you a generalisation as all the exam boards take different stances on it

You got full marks? *in awe*



Thanks Nicki! Looks like my computer messing up again then! *kicks it*

All i know is that Edexcel need a complete kick up the backside.

I have to admit that my GCSE music with them was ok - but I'm beginning to worry about A level music now because I'm not the kind of person who would be expected to get a high grade anyway so i'll probably totally fail.

Edexcel are terrible though. Our school do Edexcel history and this year a whole set of history papers went missing so Edexcel averaged all the people whose papers had been lost out at a C. You can imagine how upset people who should have been getting A's and A*'s were when they ended up with C's because their papers had got lost. It's not just music their bad with. I think Edexcel should be banned. Even WJEC (Welsh board) offer better service in England than Edexcel do.

Also, I heard that they were getting secretaries to mark music papers, which is terrible, as how can someone who perhaps does not have any musical knowledge mark something like a composition.

To be honest, I'm beginning to wonder whether it's worth me doing AS music - my college does Edexcel.

Does anyone here have experience of WJEC's Music course? I got my results back a week ago as I was on holiday on results day. I didn't really understand that you had to add the module scores up and compare the total with the numbers in the table on the back of the sheet to get your overall score. Give me a break here though, it was the early hours of the morning - my friend had put my results through the door. I saw all the letters and numbers and cried! I added them up in the morning though and overall I got an A. The mystery is though that I found the exam easy - after Grade 8 aurals (which is basically what the exam was a written version of ) yet I was 5 marks off an A which is not what I would have expected. In the performance module I was told not to worry If I didn't get much more than a scraped A, because our examiner is known to be quite a low scorer, however I got 90/90. I guess I was lucky because it's what bumped my score back up in the end to a healthy A.

Whoever it was that was talking about the cost of remarks, I think it was Nicki, do you really have to pay for it yourself? I'm having one of my French modules re-marked (now that's another story!) but that was the school's choice, they kind of decided without me. And you can still reject it if your grade goes down? I signed something at school this morning promising I wouldn't complain if my mark went down! That wasn't an AQA form though, it was a school one. Perhaps they just don't want the hassle - really makes me feel valued!

Emma, don't be put off by the Edexcel 'horror' stories. Ok, they do happen, but is it worth giving up your thirst for more music knowledge and an enjoyable course to a reputation?


Yes. You have to pay for remarks, and access to scripts, and retakes.
I will have to pay £6 for a History scipt, according to my History teacher I shouldn't have got a B on one of the papers, and possibly about £9 for my composition and compositional techniques papers to be returned.

They're getting the paper back I know that, and getting it remarked but I think school are paying. I hope they are, I wouldn't have bothered, my overall mark wasn't bad anyway and I've dropped that subject now.

Well, for History, I got a good mark, but I just want to see whether I can raise my UMS.

For Music, I got a C in one module so want to try and raise that too

I got an E in one module so you're doing better than me! Stupid module 3

Finally heard from my college, and based on my other marks Edexcel have decided to award me 114/120 for Unit 6 which means I get an A overall! (not complaining )

Wow! Well done

No, stupid module 2 teehee


Oh congratulations

Module one is the only one in favour then!